The History of Provincetown Told Through Its Built Environment

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605 Commercial Street

605 Commercial Street, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Barbara Rushmore and Peter Macara, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

One of Rushmore’s campaigns, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

Friend of trees, benches, and red-brick sidewalks; enemy of chain stores, cigarette vending machines, and politics as usual — Barbara Rushmore is the reigning gadfly in a town full of them. No Town Meeting is complete without her outspoken advocacy of a cherished cause. She’s owned this property, Friendship House, since 1962 and made her home here almost all that time. She shares it with the artist Peter Macara. (Both pictured.) “The third-floor apartment, a summer rental, ‘Moonlight on the Bay,’ has allowed us to keep our lovely home,” she told me in 2014. The building was owned by Norma and Joe Starobin, who ran it as a B&B called Holiday House. In the 1890s, it was called Kwiturwori. (Say it aloud.) The trees in front, Rushmore said, are a Carpathian walnut and a European, or littleleaf, linden.

More than 2,000 buildings and vessels are searchable on buildingprovincetown.com. The Building Provincetown book is available for purchase ($20) at Town Hall, Office of the Town Clerk, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown 02657.